Library patrons. All of them, full stop, if I'm being honest, but in this specific case it's the annoyingly variable nature of a particular subset of patrons that makes me want to just start thwapping everyone within reach until the men in white coats come to take me away.
Library patrons do not read signs. This is simple fact. Even the people who check out and read 100 books a week while complaining that we shouldn't even have DVDs, why don't people read anymore, they themselves reflexively read anything they see, can't help it, been that way since I was a kid, drove my mom nuts reading out all the street signs all day long. Even those people will walk right past a big CLOSED sign and express surprise when being informed that yes, as a matter of fact we closed up the library at the exact same time we've closed for several years now. And then there are the people who will overhear us dealing with a patron who didn't read a clearly placed sign, come up to mock said patron, and then demonstrate that they themselves somehow missed an even more obvious sign. Library patrons just don't read signs.
Except, of course, when they do. We've got a lovely new book return by our front door. It's an enclosed wooden box with a slot to return items through. Basically a pretty-fied maildrop. We used to have an open bin, which meant people would root around looking for movies and walk off with items that were still checked out to other people. This new bin will put a stop to that, at least most of it, and for that reason and others I like it quite a bit.
Problem is, the designer printed "Return Books Here" underneath the return slot. It's written in a brown that's only slightly lighter than the background and it's actually hard to see unless you know it's there. Which means of course that patrons who will happily walk past a 50 foot burning sign without even noticing its existence will walk up to the bin with their items and immediately see the hard to notice printing and ask if they should return their DVDs there, as well.
It's a perfectly valid question, of course, so I'm not annoyed that they're asking it. I'm annoyed that the only time they read one of our signs is when it's the one sign we want them to ignore. I'm also annoyed that they see the faint "Return Books Here" but completely miss the garish yellow "Please Return All Items Here" sign we've placed on top of the new bin.
I'm also annoyed at whoever designed the bin. Libraries have had more than just books for decades now, and this was marketed as an all-purpose return bin, not a books-only one that will go alongside an AV-only bin.
